Deception
by sailorverystupid
Summary: The war of the ring is over. Sauron is dead and the ring destroyed, but peace never lasts, and a Wizard proves the perfect vessel for evil. Saruman is back, with Sauron's power, and he will take revenge on the fellowship. This time, evil WILL prevail.


She ran past the kitchens, with her three-layer cake, scuttling neatly through the halls of the huge Palace in Mirkwood. As usual, she was covered in flour from head to toe. The best and most reputable chef in Mirkwood she may have been, but she was most certainly not the tidiest, or the oldest for that matter. In fact, her thousand-fifty-third birthday had only just passed a matter of days ago. Nobody had celebrated it, not even her. To quote her late mother 'There's never time for trivial things while one is making cakes for kings.' Her lips quirked upwards as she remembered the little rhyme. It summed up her hectic life perfectly.  
  
She screeched to a sudden halt when an old, bent man walked directly in front of her. Eyes wide and panting heavily she sighed in relief as she managed to save her beautiful cake. The old man turned to face her and smiled, looking a mixture between baffled and bemused. His eyes took in the cake and he grinned greedily.  
  
"I am sorry sir" She said "But this cake is going to the Queen, for she is deathly sick. Into it I have slipped some medicine as she refuses to take it for the vile taste." Satisfied with the explanation, the old man stood straight and spoke;  
  
"I see, where does the Queen lie, for I greatly desire to comfort her. I am a great friend of the family. My name is Gandalf Greyhem." She looked him over. He was tall and imposing, with flowing white hair, beard and robes. His facial features were powerful and authoritative, dark, stern eyebrows and a long, thin, slightly hooked nose. He carried a white metal staff with a stone atop it.  
  
"Ah yes" she said "Gandalf the Grey, His highness has spoken kindly of you often, although I always thought you would be more, well, Grey"  
  
"The colour is figurative. I would much prefer to be Gandalf of Many Colours" He smiled. He reminded her of something, something she couldn't quite place. She shook it off lightly. She had a duty to perform after all.  
  
"Of course I will show you to the Queen" She told the old man, and lead him left, right, right, left and left again through the maze of corridors. Indeed, were he to attempt to navigate this on his own he would most certainly be lost for a good few years or so.  
  
She opened the door to the Queen's room quietly, and shuffled in with the cake. Seeing that she was asleep she set the cake on the table and delicately shook the queen, speaking to her in a hushed voice  
  
"Wake up my queen, awake, I have made you a cake" The fair queen Mithraél of Mirkwood stirred and her eyelids fluttered. She woke up, squinting and drenched in sweat. Even in the depths of fever her beauty shone.  
  
"Where is Legolas?" She asked, her voice was heavy and came out in a slight croak  
  
"The King is elsewhere, he will return when you are better"  
  
"Then I fear that I will never again see my love" Mithraél replied sadly.  
  
"Eat the cake" came the only answer "I do not mean to order a queen, but it is a delicious cake and it took a while to bake"  
  
"Dessert and prose" Smiled the Queen, and she took a bite from the cake. The cook left the room. Gandalf was outside the door and she smiled at him sadly  
  
"She is eating the cake" she told him, "But I fear that nothing can cure her." The reply startled her  
  
"I can" She stared at him.  
  
"But her illness is unknown" she replied, "The finest doctors In Middle Earth could not save her"  
  
"I can" he repeated "I know what ails her, I can give her release. Let me end her disease" And he smiled his smile again. She stared at him strangely, before a grin broke out on her face and she ran to him.  
  
"Thank you" She said happily, and hugged him. A chill ran down her spine and she turned and stoked the fire, when she turned back to the man, he was gone. The door closed with a click as the lock slid into place.  
  
"Who are you?" She heard through the door. 


End file.
